I have thought of going with a tube amp or preamp myself and am still mulling it over. There is a difference in the sound from a tube amp as opposed to a solid state amp for home audio, but I doubt that you want the same quality that musicians are after. Tubes are prized in guitar amps because of the breakup when overdriven. The idea is to get the distortion and tube distortion, not solid state distortion, is what is sought after. Indeed, if one is not getting the tubes "hot" in a guitar amp there really is no point in going tube. Just look at the amps that clapton etc uses or used - typically Marshall and they are all tubes. It really depends on what you are after in a home listening enviornment. I can guarentee that you are not after the same effect as a rock guitarist- you defniitely do not want 'crunch' in a home sound system. If I do go with a tube pre or amp my goal is certainly not to get a sound that is accurate with respect to what is on the source (CD in my case but the same holds true for any source). Rather it is to get a somewhat different sound, a little toned down - as I am thinking of mating to horns for the high spl without the potential harshness.
tubes and rock and roll, good fit?
Considering a move from solid state, to a tubes based set up, specificly VTL's Siegfried mono amps and 7.5 Series 11 line stage. Will I be happy with tubes or is there to much bloom for rock and roll? Only system I ever heard play real rock and roll with tubes was Lloyd Walkers and it sounded fantastic. It blew me away. Was it the tubes? Already have the tt and phono stage. Real knowledge and experiance thoughts wanted. Looking to make that FINAL move! thanks